The present invention relates to compound tools, and more particularly concerns a pocketknife type of tool including optical functions as well.
Many people in different walks of life find it useful to carry with them a number of items that can be roughly classified as hand-held tools or implements, and that are small enough to fit in a pocket or handbag. Some of these items, such as pens and pocket screwdrivers, serve individual functions. A number of combinations or tool sets have evolved to allow multiple functions in a small, pocketable package that can be held in the hand while in use. Pocket knives are an excellent example. These tool sets are mechanical in nature. Knife blades, screwdrivers, fingernail files, bottle and can openers, and many similar tools have been combined more or less successfully into the pocketknife format.
Hand-held items of a different nature are finding increasing use in this format. Pocket flashlights, for example, find use in many situations, from inspecting a dark corner of a desk drawer to finding a keyhole in a car door. In fact, miniature key-ring flashlights are sold in stores for this application alone. Another item that has become available in a pen-like pocket format is the laser pointer, an instrument for projecting a thin beam of light onto a screen or other display for pointing out particular areas of an image.
These hand-held optical implements, a flashlight and a laser pointer, are useful to many of the same people. And many of these people, such as office and business workers, professionals, teachers, trades people, police and security workers, campers and hikers, also have need of one or more of the mechanical tools included in the traditional pocketknife ensemble. Yet the only available option is to purchase a number of separate, often incompatible items.